Kyle Larson already having impact at McLaren with his future Indy 500 teammates

Kyle Larson will attempt his Indy 500 debut next season, but internal (and very informal) lobbying already has happened at Arrow McLaren Racing for an even earlier IndyCar appearance.

While meeting with Larson last month at the GM Racing simulator (literally just down the road from Hendrick Motorsports headquarters), Felix Rosenqvist demonstrated Larson some nuances of driving a single-seater, open-cockpit vehicle while also making a friendly sales pitch.

“It was fun just showing him around the steering wheel,” Rosenqvist said recently at IndyCar’s preseason media event. “He actually got to jump in the car a little bit, and (we were) just talking about the race.

“He sounded very interested, especially in the road courses, actually. I tried to convince him to maybe try to do a road course as well. That would be fun.”

KYLE LARSON AT THE INDY 500: Answers, analysis about his 2024 shot at The Double

There are no other NTT IndyCar Series races scheduled for Larson beyond the 2024 Indy 500, but it’s likely the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion will attend (if not drive) a race this season.

During the Jan. 12 news conference to announce the Indy 500-Coca Cola 600 attempt of “The Double,” McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown said Larson likely would be testing before the end of the season and also would attend 2023 IndyCar races to sit in McLaren driver debriefs.

The Aug. 12 race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course is an obvious candidate because Larson already will be at the Brickyard for the Cup race the next day.

But there are three other IndyCar weekends that aren’t in complete conflict with NASCAR.

The May 13 race at the IMS road course will begin three hours after Cup qualifying ends at Darlington Raceway. IndyCar’s June